Epilogue

"Where's Peter?"

"Dunno," Sirius said.

Remus frowned. "Hasn't been around much, has he?"

"He says he's working on a song." Sirius shrugged. "Aren't you worried about James?"

"He'll be here," Remus said.

"Or he'll skive off, because of his emotional troubles."

"Oh, ye of little faith," Remus said quietly, as loud swearing exploded from the hall. The door burst open to reveal James, a cigarette in his mouth, fumbling with his lighter.

He looked up quickly, took in his two friends, and took a seat in front of Remus and next to Sirius, clearing his surrounding area of papers. A fine plume of smoke raised where the abandoned cigarette was being extinguished, crushed on the table.

"She's het up, isn't she?" James asked. Sirius glanced over at Remus, and James sighed, leaning back into his chair.

"I saw Lily yesterday," Remus said. "She says you made her so furious she almost lost her mind."

He gauged James' reactions, and judging it was safe to continue, he added: "She also told me she loves you."

"Mate, that can't be bad," Sirius consoled, as he saw James straighten up.

"You know, it's up to you, but I think it's only fair; apologize to her," Remus advised.

The pub was empty that night except for a shady bloke in the corner who'd already ordered five vodkas, which made Lily nervous as she filled a sixth glass.

Half an hour later, she slung her shoulder bag on and left the pub, a strange weight settled on her, as the endless days of work ahead of her flashed in front of her in her mind. For the first time, she wondered about the future. Would it just be work all her life? And for what? More work?

Duke Street seemed far away that night, though the weather was warming up and she'd walked through an assortment of bad weather to get to and from work before with no problem. It seemed as if her life was now lacking.

Of course, it wasn't as if James cared. The first moment the publicity got too bad, and some embarrassing implications appeared on the press, he was gone. Their argument played over in her head again, as it had been over and over the past week.

"James, I can't believe you told the press that!"

"I didn't! It was someone else, I dunno!"

"Are you two having an argument?" a reporter asked with hawkish interest. "Lily, did you know that James broke it off with his last girl following a newspaper article?"

Lily rounded furiously on James. "Am I just another girl of yours?"

"No, Lily! Shut it a bit, not now!"

"You're telling me to shut it?"

James sucked in a slow breath. "Lily, not now!"

She'd left angrily after that, and James hadn't followed.

The next morning she didn't want to look at the newspaper's headlines, but she couldn't help but glance at it. She threw it away, pain in her eyes once she read, in bold lettering: Potter's girl has a fight with him – but what about the baby?

She suddenly stopped short, realizing she'd just knocked into someone. Automatic apologies were already on her lips until she took a step back and saw square glasses. She immediately frowned and tried to sidestep James and continue on her merry way, but he moved along with her, blocking her path.

"I'm not allowed to go home now?" Lily asked, her eyes burning into James'.

"I just want to talk to you," James said.

Lily's eyes registered fear, an instinctive terror that Remus had told what she'd confessed after a few pints too many, a small phrase which had slipped out, that she'd tried to cover up and blame on the alcohol, but she was sure Remus' shrewd senses had seen past her blustering excuses.

Suddenly she felt vulnerable, exposed, waiting for whatever James had to say. It was quite simple actually, only five words, that came out in a rush so James couldn't stop himself if he wanted to. "I'm sorry, I love you."

Maybe it was accidental, maybe not, and though Lily was certainly sure that it was meant to be a hug, a rational thought at the time, and then she'd suddenly stopped thinking, and missed and somehow landed her lips on his.

Later James would laugh and say she'd done it on purpose, just to wind Lily up, and she'd defend her honor accordingly, but at the moment it had happened neither of them was really aware of anything, and when they broke apart, James smiled at her. Lily's eyes registered confusion.

"I'm really angry with you," she reminded him.

"I'm sure you are," James said, and maybe for the first time since he'd met her she passed up the opportunity to argue back.

A/N: And that is the end of Maraudermania.

Believe me, if you think you're sad this is ending, you cannot be possibly more so than me. I've poured my heart and soul (figuratively) into this story for two months, and now it's ending.

After much soul-searching and dilemmas, I've decided on a sequel. This may or may not be a trilogy, but this story arc is definitely not over.

I will be posting the next story soon. It will be called Tomorrow Never Knows.

A new year's resolution: longer chapters for the next story. This may mean slower updates, but I'll try to keep up with one a week. You'll be getting as much writing as before, just in bigger chunks.

Thanks for reading!